The Puppet Masters
by KrisChin
Summary: The two use their skills not for bad, but not for good either. More like, they use it for the sake of Play.   Rated T for swears


Scattered remains of her men were sprawled around her.

The foul stench dancing in her nose made her gag.

But the war had to be fought 'till the end. She looked above the sandbags and scanned the field for her rival; though he was nowhere to be seen, she knew he was lurking in the shadows. "Kaori!" She screamed before realising that the voice came from the other side of the field, not her head.

Kaori peeked over the dense bags and stared into the brown orbs of her enemy. "I'll give you one last chance to surrender and you'd be pretty thick not to take it, most of your men are _dead_." Kankuro cackled evilly, the death rattle echoing throughout the hollow field.

"Oh, go screw yourself!" She replied loudly, rolling her eyes in the process.

Kaori heard him chuckle, "fine. No more Mr Nice Guy." _Since when was there a nice guy, this is full-fledged war, buddy!_Kaori scoffed audibly. She heard a scuffle and she scrambled to her feet, observing her foe mirror her moves.

Kaori had her weapon at the ready, as did Kankuro. There was an elephant in the room called Suspense but both ignored it, concentrating on the small ant on the elephant called War. Another eternity passed before one of them took evasive action. Kankuro sprang over his own sand bags and charged at her with his weapon.

Kaori quickly recovered from the quick movements before she leapt over the wall with her weapon at hand. Kaori screamed a war cry and attacked.

***In Reality***

"What the hell are those two doing?" Temari stood in the door way, a pink apron tied to her waist, and a slender blonde eyebrow cocked upwards.

Gaara had a thick book in his hand, sitting at the dining table, and only spared a quick glance to the two playing children who had made a mess in the living room. "God knows what," he answered, discreetly shaking his head.

The living room was a mess, the coffee table was used as Kaori's 'sandbags' and the magazines that were on it were scattered around the floor. Books were piled up to 4 feet tall and were used as the shield for Kankuro. Pictures on the walls were slanted, 'dead' stuffed toys were in the middle on the room in an untidy pile, even a lamp was shattered during the process.

Kankuro and Kaori were both manipulating Temari's collection of stuffed animals. Currently, Kankuro had a teddy bear and Kaori chose a panda bear. The movements of the toys were in synch with the twitches and turns of their masters' fingers. The panda was winning, pinning down its opponent and throwing harmless punches to its face.

"I'd be in my right mind to hit them over the head with this." Temari mildly threatened, clasping her wooden spoon so tightly that it would snap in half.

"Let the two have their fun, Kankuro's betting a kiss if he wins." Gaara patted Temari's elbow, trying to calm her down. The tomboy huffed audibly before spinning on her heels and returning to the kitchen to tend to dinner.

***On the Battle Field***

Sergeant Panda was straddling the head of Kankuro's army, Ted, and was constantly throwing brutal punches to Lieutenant Ted's face. Lt. Ted had a black eye, the right side of his face swollen and a broken jaw. For Kaori, it was an intense mystery as to how Lt. Ted was still fighting back. Lt. Ted threw Sgt. Panda off of himself.

Sergeant flew across the room in slow-motion and Kaori watched in utter horror as Ted stood and raced after him. Wait, what the hell is that? Lt. Ted had something big, shiny and pointy in tow as it raced after the crumbled Sgt. Panda. Her eyes slowly widened as she put the puzzle pieces together. It was a kunai. A dangerously sharp kunai.

And it was headed straight for Lt. Ted.

"Kankuro!" She screamed, "that wasn't part of the deal!" She threw a finger to the dagger and blasphemed wildly as Lt. Ted stabbed Sgt. Panda repeatedly. The brown haired sand nin searched around the room for something, his brown eyes sparkling at the end. "I _win_, Kaori!" He stood and pointed at her triumphantly, the other hand planted on his hip.

"Nuh uh!" She protested, "You _cheated_!"

"Yuh huh, I win! There wasn't any rule against using ninja weapons." He stuck his tongue out childishly.

"Liar, liar, pants on _**frikkin'**_ fire!" The beginning of the song was sung in a sweet sing-song voice but the moment she said 'frikkin' ' her voice turned into a deadly hiss.

"There was no rule." Kankuro replied calmly, folding his arms.

"There was a rule!"

"No there wasn't"

"Yes, there _fuckin'_ was!"

"Guys," Kankuro flinched and Kaori yelped, "dinner is ready." Gaara raised a non-existent eyebrow before retreating back into the dining room.

"Is Temari cooking it?" She called after him. Gaara replied a 'yes' and Kaori's words just slipped out. "No wonder I smelt something vile." Gaara scoffed loudly and Kankuro shook his head. "Better not say that in front of Temari." He warned and blocked the door to the dining room.

"Dude, move. The food may be horrible but I still got to eat." She tried to manoeuvre herself around him but he just squashed her between himself and the door frame, forcing her to fall back. "Cough up." Kankuro spoke simply.

"What? Money? Jesus H. Christ, dude, my money is worse than a gutter slut's pay."

"Cough up."

"A lung? No thanks, I like to breath."

"Cough. Up."

Kaori felt like crying but she replaced it with a sigh, "K-Dog, this was cute in the beginning, now I'm getting pissed."

_K-Dog?_ He thought but decided not to bring it up. "Our bet. If I won, you had to kiss me and if you won, well, I agreed for you to kick me in the cojones." Kaori sniggered but returned to the original topic.

"And what if I don't kiss you?" She raised a slender black eyebrow, questioning Kankuro's authority.

"I'll chase you around the house with Liutenant Ted and his trusty kunai." His usual goofy grin was plastered on his face while Kaori's was twisted in a snarl.

"C'mon, you two! Don't make me come in there!" Temari put on her best motherly voice from the kitchen.

"I don't want to have to come in there," Kaori threatened in a small voice, hoping that she didn't hear her. Fortunately, she didn't, but Kaori had bigger fish to fry. "C'mon, Kaori, it's just _one kiss_." Kankuro leaned forward, looking directly into her neon blue orbs, and she could see the pleading in his eyes as clear as day.

Kaori sighed,_it's not just a kiss. It's my __**first kiss**__, dumbass._

She was a real Patrick Star when it came to things like this, but hey, ninjas weren't really meant to concentrate on this kind of stuff. "Damnit, Kankuro, _move_!" She felt like crawling into a hole and never come out but she was needed back in Konoha, it wasn't an option.

Kankuro opened his mouth to object but he was cut off by his sister. "What the hell is going on here?" Temari stood behind him, hands on her hips. "Kankuro, move, Kaori needs to eat before she leaves." Kankuro sputtered, unable to think of an intelligent comeback, but the intensity of the blonde's glare was enough to keep him silent, slinking out of the doorway.

Though Kaori was sympathetic and guilty, she didn't want to be forced for her first kiss. She gently brushed past the fellow puppet master, refusing to make eye contact. She could feel the disappointment radiate off him and she suddenly felt dirty, like layers and layers of ignorance defiled her skin. When Kaori sat she knew she couldn't eat, whenever she was guilty she wouldn't eat for a whole day. She just drained a few glasses of water, filling her stomach, and only took a few bites before excusing herself. "You feeling OK, Kaori?" Temari asked, startling Kaori. She dropped her plate which, thankfully, was in the sink. It collided with the stainless steel metal and the sound rang in her ears. "Yeah, just tired." Kaori smiled tensely before drying her plate and stacking it away.

"Feel free to use the shower," Temari called as Kaori darted down the hallway and into the guest bedroom. A shower wasn't such a bad idea, she needed to cleanse herself of all this guilt. She gathered her things and made her way to the bathroom.

Kaori walked down the hall, towel-drying her hair. She prayed that she knew the hall well enough not to bump into any walls for the towel she was using blocked her vision completely. _What will I do in the morning?_ She asked herself, Kankuro still lurking in her mind. Should I try and console him? Make him forget about the bet? The black-haired kunoichi was about to list something else but crashed into the dead end of the hall.

"Holy crap on a cracker!" She hissed, removing the towel and glaring at the wall, hoping it's invisible eyes saw her angry expression. She huffed a sigh and turned on her heels, her eyes landing directly on a certain brown-haired male. Kankuro was dressed in a pair of black track pants and nothing else. He was at the end of the hall, hand on the door knob of his bedroom, staring at her. She knew he would ask 'why did you walk into a wall?' but he kept silent, his eyes boring into her's.

Kaori fidgeted nervously and he noticed, tearing his eyes off her and opening the door, disappearing into his room. She was tempted to have another shower, the guilt slowly encrusting back onto her skin, but she resisted the urge. Instead, she ran into her room and belly-flopped onto the bed, praying that all would be put behind them by the next day.

Kaori felt two small indents on her bed and slowly opened her eyes, waking from her sleep. She looked up in shock and locked eyes with two black beads. Liuetenant Ted was standing on top of her with his kunai. It gleamed with a somewhat cliché sinister twinkle. She rolled out of bed and crashed on to the floor, sucking in an lungful of air and screamed,

"_Kankuro_!"

A/N:

Ending wasn't as great as I'd liked it to be, but I'm starting to become a very finicky writer. I was tempted to not even continue on this oneshot. *Sigh*, I hope this phase ends soon.

If you have been on my profile, some of you may have noticed that I have only posted one story, which was a one shot. I am currently prewriting stories so I don't have to stress about updating them.

Expect a Hidan story, possibly a Pein story, a Dexter (for Quinn) story and maybe a Sasuke story. Prior to what I said earlier, I need to find the perfect plot or I'll just backspace the whole thing *sobz*. I have a pretty good plot for Pein, Hidan…. Not so much, maybe I'll just have to think of one throughout tonight, I have a semi-good plot (I think it's semi) for Quinn and Sasuke… well, Sasuke's pretty complicated and hard to write, but I have a plot in the back of my mind that I may go with.

I feel sorta bad for not giving Kankuro any lovin' but he'll get some sugar in another one shot.

Well, time for me to get on with my life. Even though Jashin damned school has started.

LOL (Lots of Love, Luck and Leprechauns)

Izzy.


End file.
